A Little Justice

Strictly personal justice, that is.

Tournament organizers accepted my entry fee and stuck me with two other golfers who are often avoided by many in our local men's golf club. Then they put with us (in our fivesome as the number of entrants required) two fellows from the neighboring club who are not well known, one of them much older who questioned whether he could go the whole day. It was a "2-Club Tournament" which we do every year, socializing with the men's club of the senior community nearest to ours, each of us having our own 9-hole executive golf course. This annual tourney is very enjoyable for many of us simply because we get to play an actual 18 different holes instead of our weekly method of creating a "back-9" by hitting from slightly different tee locations.

This is an event I look forward to each year, spending more money on the entry than is comfortable for me but feeling it is worth the cost. Having missed this tournament last year, I was very excited to jump back in. Then the teams were posted and the starting holes assigned. It was a bitter pill for me, having just returned to the game after my year lost to cancer and three surgeries, to be dropped into the "nondescript" group - fellows who get to play because they pay the fee and can't be denied a place but who are not thought of as viable contenders in the "money round."

I ruminated a bit over it for a couple of days, thinking it was unkind of someone in the organizational structure to place me in such a group and using my fairly low handicap to make me the representative "A" player of a group of not-very-capable golfers. Particularly stinging to me was the fact that my game suffered quite a lot with a year off and my recent scores are not yet reflecting anything close to the prowess my formerly-established handicap would indicate. (My handicap will climb slowly through months of high scores until my strength and adjusted swing methods bring me back to a deserved position in the "A" flight.)

Therefore, my attitude need adjusting for a day or so and I got it under control by yesterday morning as I met the two men from the visiting group and greeted the two fellows I know pretty well from my own club - all of us standing on the tee box of the toughest starting position on the whole two-course tournament structure.

My misfit team with "no respect" started the scramble format by snatching a par on that first long par-3 (it feels like a birdie whenever one pars that hole). Then on the next hole, stepping to the ball position the struggling older man had hit fairly near the green, I popped a wedge shot into the hole. Actual birdie! One-under after two holes with the toughest hole of the entire 18 coming next. The weakest team member (a huge fellow who began trying to golf after retiring here about three years ago and whose decent shots are still quite rare) smacked his ball to a spot where we could all feel comfortable hitting a second shot (each team was required to use two tee-shots by each player during the round), so we chose that drive and all hit to the green. One of the team put it within five feet on the undulating green and a good putter (that older fellow whose drive we had used on the previous hole), stepped up first and dropped one of the most difficult short putts on our course. One-under after three holes - the three that comprised the most difficult short stretch in the tournament.

Next hole - birdie! And the next! From there on, we were real believers in our ability to make this our tournament. At the lunch afterward, the scores were announced and money prizes handed out. First place - my little team of misfits, at a score of 9-under par; second place - a team of respected players who scored well at 6-under; third place - a tie between two groups of more of the most respected players with the lowest handicaps and some of them all teamed up specially by the organizers to be the likely winners.

I'm sure most of them will look at all this as a fluke, a single day of water running uphill and pigs flying backward, but I think a few will show a little more respect to some of us who didn't stand a chance! Teamwork really worked and attitude played a big part. We went out to have fun, and winning it all was also good fun.